Operation Banner by Nicholas van der Bijl

Author:Nicholas van der Bijl [Bijl, Nicholas van der]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Modern, General, Political Science, Terrorism, Europe, Great Britain
ISBN: 9781781599266
Google: EoeuCAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2009-10-19T00:31:56+00:00

Chapter 9

The Beginning of the Long War

Meanwhile, a deep rift had developed in the Provisional Belfast Brigade IRA over the depreciation of military capability during the ceasefire between the Old Guard led by such veterans as Rory O’Brady and New Guard dissidents, mostly from the Belfast Brigade, led by Gerry Adams languishing in Compound (Convicted) 11 in Long Kesh. Adams had been transferred from Compound (Internees) 6 after attempting to escape. The South Armagh and East Tyrone Brigades had generally not abided by the ceasefire and were still militarily sharp. By the end of 1975, Brian Keenan, fresh from a year in prison in Ireland, after being convicted as a member of the IRA, had rejoined the Provisional Army Council as Quartermaster General and Director of Mainland Operations. His political philosophy veered toward left-wing groups in Central and South America. Frustrated by events in the Murder Triangle and the murders of the three Reavey brothers in Glenane and the three O’Dowds at Ballydugan, near Gilford, the previous day, he convinced Seamus Twomey, who was Chief of Staff, that retaliation was essential. On 5 January 1976 this resulted in the slaughter of twelve Protestant textile workers at a Provisional roadblock near Kingsmill.

Two days later, Prime Minister Wilson unexpectedly announced that the SAS would deploy to South Armagh for ‘patrolling and surveillance’ tasks. The announcement came as something of a surprise to SAS commanders because the Regiment was still engaged in a counter-revolutionary war in Dhofar, albeit near the end, and a squadron was winter warfare training in Norway. Nevertheless the eleven soldiers available, which included several recovering from wounds received in Dhofar, were formed into Ulster Troop. The Ministry of Defence was equally destabilized by the announcement, particularly as the Regiment had little experience in Ulster and that some SAS officers believed that the counter-insurgency experience gained in the deserts of Dhofar, where the rule of law was generally summary, could be transferred to the narrow streets and fields of Northern Ireland, where the rule of law prevailed. HQ Northern Ireland and the RUC were distinctly uncomfortable with the idea of the Regiment being let loose in an internal security environment and thus when SAS senior officers arrived, they were slightly taken aback not to be invited into the Intelligence corridor.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Rees had finished working on his paper entitled The Way Ahead, in which he envisaged a strategy of ‘Criminalization, Ulsterization, and Normalization’. In a concept not markedly different from British strategies employed in its post-1945 campaigns, the idea was to transfer responsibility for internal security back to local government and its armed forces, as quickly as possible and that the Army would gradually disengage, as much as possible, because British soldiers being killed was politically less acceptable than the deaths of local security forces. In March, Rees took the first step in the criminalization process by announcing that the special category status for those convicted of terrorist offences would end and from henceforth anyone convicted of political

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